Norman Lear: New Right Will Emerge

TV producer Norman Lear has co-signed an e-mail warning fellow liberals that with Democrats in control of Congress and the White House, the Republican Party will “take a hard turn to the extreme right.”

Lear, co-founder of People For the American Way, and the organization’s president, Kathryn Kolbert, wrote: “With the right in its new role as ‘the opposition,’ get ready to see an invigorated right-wing grassroots, media and organizational infrastructure.”

Kolbert and Lear — whose TV shows included “All in the Family” and “The Jeffersons” — asserted that the The Heritage Foundation “is already digging in its heels saying they will not let President-elect Obama bring about the change he's promised.”

The e-mail predicts:

Right-wing blogs, talk radio and television outlets like Fox News will experience a boom, and new personalities will emerge.

Considering the popularity of Sarah Palin, who appealed to the far-right base, many will make the case that the best political strategy is a hard-line and unabashed commitment to right-wing ideology.

Following the passage of anti-gay ballot initiatives in Arkansas, Arizona, Florida and California, the emboldened religious right will seek to “repeat these tactics in state after state.”

The e-mail continues: “The right is already planning the revitalization of the conservative movement. They will have the energy. They will have the funding. And with the will to obstruct at every turn the change that we've worked so hard to achieve, the right is making our case that People For the American Way is more necessary than ever…

“The Clinton administration was subject to unrelenting attacks from the right — as Obama's surely will be — but too many progressives thought they could stop fighting once the election was over.

“Without a strong progressive movement keeping the wind at the Obama administration's back, our constitutional values will not be realized as policy and our electoral gains will be short-lived.”

TV producer Norman Lear has co-signed an e-mail warning fellow liberals that with Democrats in control of Congress and the White House, the Republican Party will “take a hard turn to the extreme right.”Lear, co-founder of People For the American Way, and the organization’s...